The following includes information that may be useful in understanding the present invention(s). It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art, or material, to the presently described or claimed inventions, or that any publication or document that is specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of wheel cleaners and more specifically relates to a wheel sweeper system.
2. Description of the Related Art
One aspect of any type of flooring is that it is not self cleaning. A great deal of labor generally goes into cleaning every occupied residential or in-use commercial building annually. The condition and the frequency that the floors get dirty usually dictate how often the floors get cleaned. In climates that have high rainfall measurements annually or that have particular types of soils, the cleaning of floors can get tiring not to mention expensive when using hired labor. Devices such as foot cleaning mats or brushes are sometimes found near doorways so people can clean mud off of their feet before entering a residence or commercial building, but in homes having handicap individuals that use wheel chairs, or in commercial buildings that wheeled carts such as grocery baskets frequently enter and exit, no provision is made. The wheels on carts or wheel chairs in these regions can be the major source of tracked soil and debris into buildings since cleaning the wheels is not nearly as convenient as it is for a person to clean his or her feet on a mat or shoe cleaning brush before entering. The wheels of these devices can track mud, dirt, rocks, stickers, or other debris into buildings rapidly when the traffic is high. A device that allows the continuous and reliable cleaning of wheels would be very welcomed.
Various attempts have been made to solve the above-mentioned problems such as those found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,605,239 to Jeff Warfel, U.S. Pat. No. 6,776,698 to Daniel Pepin; and 2014/0284911 to Jeffrey Kueppers. This art is representative of automatic wheel cleaning brushes. None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the invention as claimed.
Ideally, a wheel cleaner should provide reliability and ease of use, and yet, would operate reliably and be manufactured at a modest expense. Thus, a need exists for a reliable wheel sweeper system to avoid the above-mentioned problems.